✨ Lessons and Laughter from Magical May
Cherishing Growth, Good Times & Unfolding (Letter 212)
Aloha fellow learn-it-all 👋
Greetings from Honolulu, Hawaii,
Let’s dive straight into letter 212 from a learn-it-all. Enjoy!
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❓Question to think about
What happened in May?
🤔Reflecting
♥️ What I loved:
Swimming in the sea with my sister at one of my favorite beaches. So many of my favorite things
Living in a community for six days with others who are spiritual, mindful, meditative, philosophical, and caring.
Learning to cook breakfast for 11 people on two camper stoves
Embodying acceptance through surrendering control and breathing
Writing a letter a day
Doing Zazen most mornings or evenings
Bringing friends to the Zen Center to meditate with
Tidy Tuesdays with my roommate to make our home more homey
When my sister made home-made focaccia, pesto and banana bread for my friend’s Potluck and it was inhaled
Having a network of friends with huge backpacks, so I could borrow one for Big Island without needing to buy one
Courageously sharing my poetry in groups with my Zen sangha of ten people and again to 20 people last night at the Surf Poet Society
💫 What I created:
A poem on unconditional acceptance and emotional openness called Surrender to Sisterhood
A letter to my Dear Marvelous Mind as an out of office Notice that the Documentarian is taking a week off
A poem from finding my way during Hele Mālie Zen Sesshin called 🌬️ Whispers of the Wind to a Bipedal Being
A Hawaiian sea salt and brown sugar body scrub with equal parts coconut oil and some geranium essential oil droplets.
This beautiful songs playlist with my sister that I’ve loved listening to
🤓 What I learned:
I value both work ethic and play. Those I allow in my life tend to have both.
I want to be around people who respect, support, and accept me as I am.
The wind’s whispers to me that I am a raw creation that needn’t change, just like the glistening volcanic rock that I walk on
As an agreeable recovering people pleaser, I’d rather by respected than liked
Ruts can happen from a lack of routine
I can rely on other senses, like through sounds, when choosing to let my vision blur for days while backpacking
I can notice unfamiliar sensations, such as shrimp feeding on my feet, little fishies nibbling, or my legs feeling sandy as they fall asleep. I can send my breath to it to ease the discomfort and make it okay.
The path unfolds while I walk it. Thank you to Zen Teacher Michael for sharing this insight with me.
😆 When I laughed:
When Roger thought that my downward dog hand's claw prints in the sand were marks from a sea turtle laying her eggs on the beach
My Saturday night quest with my sister was to find a lithium battery in five stores across the island when the car wouldn’t start again with an electric key.
Seeing a Monk seal swim and plop right up on the Makalei beach near me on Memorial Day. She cutely burrowed her face into the sand and passed out
Stalking the mischievous black crabs that scurried across the sandy sea floor wave after wave, flinging sand to dig out new holes.
I was out at the surf break on Big Blue, a nine-foot hard-top board, and met a Dutch speaker named Sammy. I mumbled out some rubbish words and realized I had forgotten nearly all the Dutch I thought I knew. Oy vey.
I know I laughed more times than this. I will continue to notice these moments better in the future.
❓Questions to think about?
What long-term games do I want to be playing?
What non-negotiables do I know I want?
How can I make this the best summer ever?
In this moment, what am I noticing?
How do I prioritize my values?
What month-long project could I begin to study philosophy more intentionally?
✨ New Projects for June
Launching a women’s group. I met a handful of wise women when I took Jonny Miller’s Nervous System Mastery Course last month. I put in the chat box on the closing call that I wanted to start this, and now it’s coming to life! Shoutout to Ocean Kiani for her initiative. I’m feeling zesty about this.
Daily pushups. I don’t care if it’s one or five or ten. I’m going to learn how to do pushups. I had a meetup with some triathlon friends before I bid them adieu for the Honu half ironman this weekend on the Big Island. Many of them had done the Murph challenge on Memorial Day, consisting of 100 pullups, 1 mile run, 300 squats, and 200 pushups. I gasped at the thought of those 200 pushups. If I can do at least 10 proper pushups by the end of this month, I will feel satisfied.
Devoting June through August to the The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to High Creativity. This will be my third time doing one of Julia Cameron’s three-month writing programs. I’m excited to devote myself, in particular, to the weekly exercises and artist dates. The audio version of the text will be easier to bake into my day, and I do morning pages daily already.
The North Shore Summer Swim Series. I’m excited to get some new personal records for open-water swimming. The first race is next weekend, and I get to swim at Pipeline— how epic!!
I'm continuing my daily letter writing. It’s brought me much joy. Surprisingly, it’s also been healing some parts of me and creating unexpected breakthroughs about the stories I tell myself each day.
Talking about work. If you’d like to discuss the sexy topic of work, I’m redefining my philosophy on it, and we could chat here. In June, I’ll explore and actively research jobs, careers, and vocations that excite me. It’s nearing the time for me to pivot into a new way of funding my livelihood, and I want to lean into that.
The balance of fortuitousness and planning. I’ve written a draft on this topic and might write a couple more as I ponder how these play into my life. I never even knew what fortuitous meant until five days ago. If you don’t, no shame. A simple synonym for it is serendipity.
—> If any of these projects excite you, I’m open to discussing them. They are top of mind. I invite you to respond to this email or reach me at vermetJL@gmail.com.
📜🖋 Poetry Corner
🎤 Reciting
This is me last night at the Surf Poet Society reading an iteration of the above poem. :) First time reciting aloud to so many strangers. (I think about 20 people there).
🎧Listening
I’ve listened to
on the Curious Humans podcast interview the founder of Aletheia on “The Reason Self Development is Fundamentally Flawed.”tldr;
We are already whole as humans and do not need to force change on ourselves.
My paraphrasing of the most significant part of this at minute 24, about self-development:
Unfoldment naturally worked when we were kids, growing and changing without brute force as we biologically and physically developed. But as “mature” adults, we use self-improvement frameworks to notice what is missing and deficient. These can be throughout buckets of life, such as professional, spiritual, romantic, social, or health. The problem with noticing these deficiencies is that they are never-ending. As someone who has been chipping away attempting to improve, I feel so validated that all this self-improvement can be an exhausting and overwhelming trap that never ends like quicksand.
Once you notice one thing wrong and fix it, there are countless others, so it’s a never-ending cycle.
Devoting to self-improvement is okay when it is seen as developing a craft or skill as long as it is alongside the belief that you as a whole person are not deficient and your worth is not contingent on a skill. It works for skill building but that does not define yourself as being deficient.
This is why seeing self-development through the unfoldment of myself is supportive of a more holistic approach.
Shout to for sharing this podcast with me.
🔍Word to define
Chiliocosm: (noun) (Buddhism) A collection of many worlds.
Example: In his meditations, the monk envisioned the chiliocosm, contemplating the interconnectedness of the thousand worlds within the vast expanse of the universe.
🌟Quote to inspire
“How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.” —Winnie the Pooh
📸Photos of the Month
🙏Shoutouts
To everyone who touched my month of May. You live in a part of me. You know who you are.
I appreciate you reading this!
If ideas resonate, I’d love you to press the heart button, leave a comment, reply to this email, or reach me at vermetjl@gmail.com. If you forget who I am, I welcome you to my online home.
Keep on learning 😁
Mahalo 🌺
Jen
If you’re reading this because someone shared this newsletter with you, welcome! I’d love it if you subscribed:
So much goodness in these posts. I love the breakdown and to hear what you’re up to and the new, interesting ways you’re thinking about life. Thanks for writing, Jen :)